What is BGP instability?
BGP instability is when the internet's core routing keeps changing — networks rapidly announcing and withdrawing the paths they use to reach blocks of IP addresses — so routes flap, disappear, or shift, and some services become slow or unreachable even when your own connection is perfectly fine.
The short version
BGP is the protocol that decides how traffic crosses between the thousands of independent networks that make up the internet. When those routing decisions churn — flapping up and down, or vanishing entirely — the result is BGP instability.
It happens far outside your home or office, so there's usually nothing to fix locally. The value is in knowing that's where the trouble lives.
What is BGP?
The Border Gateway Protocol (BGP) is how autonomous systems exchange routing information. An autonomous system — or AS — is one of the large networks that make up the internet: an ISP, a cloud provider, a university, a big company, each with its own AS number. Using BGP, every AS advertises which blocks of IP addresses (prefixes) it can reach and by what path, and listens as its neighbors do the same. From that constant exchange, each network learns how to reach every destination online. BGP is the internet's inter-domain routing glue — the thing that lets independently run networks behave like one.
What "instability" means
A healthy route is announced once and stays put. Instability is the opposite: frequent announcements and withdrawals, with routes flapping up and down, prefixes being withdrawn, or the chosen path changing rapidly. The usual causes are mundane — router misconfigurations, link failures, flaky hardware, and route leaks, where a network accidentally re-advertises routes beyond their intended scope. Occasionally the cause is a deliberate BGP hijack, where a network announces prefixes it has no authority over. Whatever the trigger, the effects are similar: transient unreachability, packet loss, latency spikes, or outages for the affected networks — problems that originate outside your local network and your ISP's control.
Why it matters
Most connectivity problems really are local — bad Wi-Fi, a tired router, a DNS hiccup. But sometimes your connection and every local diagnostic look completely healthy and a service is still unreachable or crawling. The cause may be routing instability out in the wider internet, several networks away. Knowing that stops you chasing a local problem that doesn't exist — rebooting hardware that's fine, or calling an ISP that can't fix a route flapping hops beyond it.
How NetGlobe surfaces it
NetGlobe's Internet Health view surfaces BGP-instability and outage signals so you can see context your local view can't. Importantly, these are third-party signals that NetGlobe aggregates and presents — sourced from IODA (Internet Outage Detection and Analysis) and IHR (Internet Health Report). NetGlobe does not run its own global BGP looking-glass or monitoring infrastructure; it surfaces those external signals alongside your live connections and diagnostics, so you can tell whether trouble is on your machine, your link, or out in the internet's routing fabric.
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BGP instability — FAQ
What is BGP in simple terms?
BGP (the Border Gateway Protocol) is how the internet's autonomous systems — each with its own AS number — tell each other which blocks of IP addresses (prefixes) they can reach, and by what path. It's the routing glue between networks; when it isn't working, packets can be lost or misdirected.
What causes BGP instability?
Usually mundane ones: router misconfigurations, link or hardware failures, and route leaks, where a network accidentally re-advertises routes beyond their intended scope. Rarely, a deliberate BGP hijack — announcing prefixes it doesn't own. Either way, routes get announced and withdrawn more than normal.
How does BGP instability affect me?
It can make a service slow or unreachable even when your own connection, router, and ISP are perfectly fine. The cause is out in the wider internet, so there's usually nothing to fix locally — no broken device to chase.
What is a route leak vs a BGP hijack?
A route leak is usually a mistake: a network re-advertises routes beyond their intended scope, so traffic takes a wrong, longer path. A BGP hijack announces prefixes it has no authority over — sometimes malicious — pulling traffic the wrong way. A hijack is the more serious, intentional case.
Where does NetGlobe get its internet-health data?
NetGlobe aggregates third-party signals from IODA (Internet Outage Detection and Analysis) and IHR (Internet Health Report). It does not run its own global BGP looking-glass — it presents these external signals for wider context your local diagnostics can't see.
Educational definition, for informational purposes. IODA (Internet Outage Detection and Analysis) and IHR (Internet Health Report) are independent third-party projects; NetGlobe aggregates and displays their signals and is not affiliated with them. Treat these signals as context, not a diagnosis.
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